Zeno

(in the 3rd century B.c.) wrote about the “ Logos through all things”; and Virgil (4in., vi, 724) believed in an “ animus-mundi,” or soul of the world, of which (says Dr Bryce in his notes, p. 146) “the human soul was held to be an emanation—a spark from the parent fire.” Inasmuch as the Logos was thus regarded as a fire, or a light (the fire of immortality which, according to the Persian scriptures, brings the pious dead again to life) it is perhaps not remarkable that our own ancestors appear to have confused the Logos (brought to them by Greek monks) with their own deity Loki, the god of fire and light; and, according to the Earl of Southesk, the “ Priest of Lug” on the Newton stone represents this confusion (Socy. of Antigq. Scotland Proc., 1885, p. 33). “The revived Druidism,” he adds, “which appears in its final struggle... after the withdrawal of the Roman legions (in 400 A.C.) as set forth in the Poems of Taliesin of the 7th century, is a religion offering, in many points, a wonderful analogy to the ancient Persian tenets.” Mr A. Lang (Long man’s Mag., December 1901, p. 191), gives a peculiar instance of these mixed ideas. A north Lincoln shire farmer used, when a boy, to be sent by his mother to dispense quinine to rheumatic neighbours (about the middle of the 19th century); but one old dame rejected it for her grandson with scorn, and showed him her own prescription at the foot of the bed. “On the bottom board were fixed three horseshoes—points upwards, with a hammer laid ‘slosh ways’ over them. Taking it in her hand she said— ‘Feyther, Son, an’ Holy Ghost Naale towd divvel tow this poast. Thrice I stroikes with holy crock. With this mell I thrice du knock. One for God An’ one for Wod An’ one for Lok.’” Mr Lang says that this is “an extraordinary mingle-mangle of old Norse Paganism and Christianity—Thor’s Mell (or hammer), and Christ’s Cro ; the Christian Trinity, and Thor, Woden, and Loki.” {The author supposes that Lok may here refer to the Logos, a word derived from the Aryan root Lug “to call”: since the Logos was also the fire, heat, and light, of the world; while Loki is from the Aryan root Luk, whence “light,” and the Latin luks or lwx.—ED. } The Jews of the 3rd century B.C., identified the Wisdom of the Book of Proverbs, and Job, with the Logos, as we see in the “Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirah,” where we read (ix, 1), that God made all in his Logos—or wisdom—and that wisdom made man, Jerome believed this work to have been written by Philo (which is hardly confirmed by the discovery of the Semitic original); but even the earliest date is later than the time when Buddha said that wisdom divides darkne from light. The Logos was a masculine noun, whereas Wisdom was feminine in both Hebrew and Greek (see Contemporary Review, May 1876); but the Holy Ghost is represented as either masculine or feminine (see Spirits), In the Talmud the Logos (Dabar or “ word ”), becomes a “ tower of light ” (see Mimra); and Wisdom (see Adam Kadmon), is one of the emanations of Deity (Franks, La Cabbala, p. 178). The Alexandrians—Greek and Jewish—knew much that is now lost to us as to this symbolism; and Paul, like the author of the fourth Gospel, might gather much from the philosophers of Tarsus, and Ephesus, or from Philo. The comparison between the views of this Jewish philosopher and the language of the New Testament has been clearly stated by the Rev. J. W. Lake; and according to Baur the writers of the Targums (4th century A.C, and later), identified the “word of Yahveh” with the Shekina or “presence” of God. | Philo, New Testament. The Logos is the most ancient of beings. The first born of all creation. Colos. i, 15, The first begotten of God, The first begotten. Heb. i, 6. The image and likene of God. The image of the invisible God. Colos. ‘ i, 15.: Superior to the angels. Better than the angels. Heb, i, 4.: The instrument by which the world was By whom also he made the worlds. created, Heb, i, 2 (1 Cor. viii, 6).: The Light of the World. The true light. John i, 9. The Logos only can see God. He hath seen the Father. John vi, 46. The Logos is esteemed the same as God. The Logos was God. John i,1(see Heb. — i, 8). It is without sin: the Christ without spot. Heb. ix, 14: Seal of Gods Christ the Seal. Ephes, i, 13 (see John vi, 27). ‘The source of immortal life. In him is life. John i, 4. ‘The true high priest. Christ the high priest. Heb, iv, 14; vii, 26. ‘The Companion and Propitiator, who The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, or stands between man and God, whom Comforter (John xiv, 26), or the. no man can understand, Advocate (1 John ii, 1). The Logos, in short, was the Jewish philosophical conception which harmonised their idea of divine wisdom with the Greek idea of a reason or cause, Loh. The ruined city of Jell-Loh (“tablet mound”), represents the ancient Zirgul, the name of which survives hard by in the village of Zirghul. It stands on the Shat el Hai, between the Tigris and the Euphrates, S.E. of Babylon: It was excavated by M. de Sarzec in and after 1887; and the fine granite statues of Gudea, covered with Akkadian texts of historic value, were brought thence to the Louvre. Door sockets of diorite, statues of alabaster, tablets, and other remains, were also found in the ruins, which include the remains of a great Ziggurat, or stepped pyramid, of burnt brick like the Birs Nimrid at Borsippa, outside Babylon. According to the Babylonians of the 6th century B.c., Dungi, King of Ur, lived about 2800 B.c. The Zirgul texts show that Gudea was his contemporary, being a Patesi, or subordinate ruler, the office being apparently hereditary, and probably given to princes of the royal house: for Urbau, father of Dungi, appears both as a Patesi and also as a king of Ur. Other names of princes—or perhaps titles —oceur at Zirgul, at Nipir, and at Susa, which have been supposed to represent an ancient dynasty; but the dates and succe ion of these are at present uncertain, as no list resembling that of the Babylonian kings is knewn to exist. [These names or titles include Ur-nina (“servant of Nina”), A-kur-gal (“son of the great Lord”), Ba-du (“the one who causes work ”), Urukagina (“hero of the world”), Entena (“lord of the shrine”), En-annadu (“the heaven-sent prince ”), Nam-uru-ni (“of heroic appearance”), Urbau (“worshipper of Bau”), Gudea (“spirit of power”), and Ur-ninib—the servant of the god called Adaru by Babylonians. As in the case of Maanistusu (mentioned at. 484